NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cydney83]

genetic hackle chickens
I am not sure what these are? Can't wait for pictures.

 

[greymane]

Genetic hackles are specifically raised for feather quality to be used in tying flies for fishing.

 

[Cydney83]

Quote:
oh, wow Thanks,,,my nephew would love some of those!! Oh, no I can't have another breed!

BTW, There are 4 ducks in need of a home..2 Cayugas and 2 Rouens...I understand there are prs. Thanks.

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
Becareful with the plastic. You don't want the humidity to get to high. Chickens can do quite well with the cold. Read the latest issue of BY Poultry. Drafts you want to block but if it gets to warm then the humidity will go up and that's when you get respiratory problems. Especially if you use the deep litter method. That litter contains quite a bit of moisture.

I hope we all survive the winter,

Rancher

We'll all survive it, Just not sure if all our fingers and toes will.

I am very puzzled by people's concern about chickens and the cold. Wild birds live outdoors all winter and I have yet to find hundreds (or even one) of them dead on the ground in the spring. They have a down coat and thousands of years of inbreed survival instinct and they do survive. Our chickens have food and water delivered to them daily. Why wouldn't they live through the winter if protected from the illnesses of winter?

Want a good laugh? On the "Why aren't my chickens laying" thread someone in TX was asking since her chickens weren't laying any more, should she just sell them and start over in the spring, since she couldn't justify heating the coop for the winter with no eggs in return OMG.

In TEXAS

Well I expect they don't molt just rip out feathers to stay cool.

Must have a self plucking breed.

Talk about a nudist chickens colony?

I wouldn't be asking why aren't my chickens laying but why are they all naked? I can hear them now. "It's so hot I just can't lay an egg today".

I used to put two heat lights in the coop but no more. I was seeing crystals on the walls. I buy a stock of wood flaks and just keep adding more to keep things dry. Though I do clean on a warm February day if there is one. You can always take the top off the floor and just add some new dry. Also throw some scratch at night to help them heat up and rework the litter.

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:

I got a whole 6 eggs...2 bantams...one olive....one sussex...2 orp or RIR...ok so we have 75 chickens...no lights yet...husband is working on it...never a quick thing...
Does anyone vaccinate for Infectious Laryngotracheitis? My flock hasn't had this...I am so afraid even to say that...I have decided to sell the BLRW and a gentlemen was interested in them until I said I didn't vaccinate for that...so does anyone? Yes it is a horrible thing to have the chickens "drop like flies"..
Wow want a nice night...
I had one little chick hatch...the other got broke on Sunday ...so close..it is a RIR/sussex cross...maybe it will lay a huge egg...

I don't vaccinate for anything. One of the theories out there is to allow chickens to develop a natural immunity to what is out there. Now having said that my whole flock will probably catch something horrible(that I could vaccinate against) and die.

What do people insulate their coops with? Last year I did not insulate, but then the wood was new and the wood was apparenly wet because now there are gaps between the boards. I was thinking of stapling cardboard to the inside of the walls and then take it down in the spring. Ideas?
Comments?
Ginny

I don't vaccinate for anything due to my belief in creating sturdy birds. I don't think Gramma and Grampa vaccinated. Seems to me at least some health problems are created by poor care of the birds. One being poor ventilation. If it smells in your coop then it needs to be cleaned ASAP. Though most cleaning can simply be taking most of the yuk out and adding new wood chips. Using the right bedding. Not over crowding. If it feels humid in the coop it can cause major problems. Believe me folks I buy both BY Poultry and Practical Poultry so much of what I pass on is what I've read. These two publications have taught me a lot. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I will admit to starting to insulate my main coop but only because there is some left over insulation laying around. I just do a little every time I clean but it's not a full blown project. I don't heat it though. The walls are thin IMO. You could just cover the inside walls. Too, I want to reduce the crevices where things can hide by bringing the wall straight to the floor. Which is where I've started and am gradually working my way up.

There is no insulation of course in the hoop coop. I'll be watching that one closely. Right now there is just a couple of tarps over the top.

I'll post pics later.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
I don't vaccinate for anything. One of the theories out there is to allow chickens to develop a natural immunity to what is out there. Now having said that my whole flock will probably catch something horrible(that I could vaccinate against) and die.

What do people insulate their coops with? Last year I did not insulate, but then the wood was new and the wood was apparenly wet because now there are gaps between the boards. I was thinking of stapling cardboard to the inside of the walls and then take it down in the spring. Ideas?
Comments?
Ginny

I don't vaccinate for anything due to my belief in creating sturdy birds. I don't think Gramma and Grampa vaccinated. Seems to me at least some health problems are created by poor care of the birds. One being poor ventilation. If it smells in your coop then it needs to be cleaned ASAP. Though most cleaning can simply be taking most of the yuk out and adding new wood chips. Using the right bedding. Not over crowding. If it feels humid in the coop it can cause major problems. Believe me folks I buy both BY Poultry and Practical Poultry so much of what I pass on is what I've read. These two publications have taught me a lot. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I will admit to starting to insulate my main coop but only because there is some left over insulation laying around. I just do a little every time I clean but it's not a full blown project. I don't heat it though. The walls are thin IMO. You could just cover the inside walls. Too, I want to reduce the crevices where things can hide by bringing the wall straight to the floor. Which is where I've started and am gradually working my way up.

There is no insulation of course in the hoop coop. I'll be watching that one closely. Right now there is just a couple of tarps over the top.

I'll post pics later.

I got inspired by your hoop coop. I wanted to process those birds and move the coop to cove my kale in hope of extending the season. When I started picking up the cockerels they felt .....not very meaty. Well I have decided to give them all the treats they can possibly eat for the next few weeks, then, off they go. I feel like the witch in Hansel and Gretel, checking to see if the children, ooppps! I mean cockerels are fat enough to eat! If they are nothing but soup carcasses then so be it! but I digress....the hoop coop does get condensation inside. If I were going to be using it for much longer I would have to do something about it....It is very handy to have as a grow out pen though...

 

[rancher hicks]

I expect the key is to open it up in the daytime for ventilation and then close it at night. I do have openings near the top of the door ways. Right now the front is open, as is the run. I may cover the walls but not the doors or put some type of closure on it with velcro. Kinda like a flap.

Each chicken generates 10 watts of heat. So do the math and that's what is going on. They also exhale a lot of moisture. So you want it dry. I have those big round thermometers in the coop so I can read them at a glance. I'd like to buy some humidity gauges and check that too.

Snow is a great insulator so when it slides down the sides that will help keep things warm too. Kinda like an igloo.

It's really quite sturdy. I leaned a step latter against the side to climb up and zip tie the plastic over the run.

I intend to put some shelves hanging from the sides to use the run as a greenhouse for starting my summer crops. We'll have to see how it works. Absolutely they are great for "cold crops" like lettuce, kale, collard and chard. Which chickens love.

 

[In His Service]

I have insulated my coops with stuff I got off CL, it is about 1/2" thick fiberglass with a sort of plastic-y side (not paper), then used tongue and groove that was taken off the walls of my son's room when we added electric wiring and insulation and sheetrock. When I ran out of the wood, I started using tarps stapled over the insulation. I have lots of hardware cloth-covered windows and I cover any that cause a draft on the roost with thick plastic that I bought marked down at a fabric store. It is much thicker than the stuff you put on windows and blow dry to shrink wrap it, so it will last a few years. It is translucent, but not transparent, so they get light, but not a real good view out the window,

.
I also have a few dog houses that have been converted into coops that I use as grow out coops.

This year, I decided to eliminate all excess roosters before winter sets in, in order to group more chickens in each coop. When the cockerals I have kept start getting feisty in the spring, I will be able to separate them out into separate coops by breed. Then I will probably have to put them on a rotating schedule of free-ranging.


I haven't heated coops, don't plan to. I have dreamed about building a shed with electricity so I could have an outdoor brooder, but then I always wake up

I hope to have raised beds next year, with hoop coops over them like a green house to extend the gardening season. Possibly also using the hoops for temporary runs for housing meaties. I can dream, right?

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
Mine is open during the day. During the cold weather, h2o froze everywhere except in the hoop coop. Mine is covered with an opaque plastic, then a small tarp on a portion of the top. I thought, if I were to use it as a coop all winter, I would cut some sort of window near the top and when it got really cold, have a bigger tarp to cover the window. I have hooks to close it during the night. Never thought of velcro. Will have to save that one for next year!

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
Becareful with the plastic. You don't want the humidity to get to high. Chickens can do quite well with the cold. Read the latest issue of BY Poultry. Drafts you want to block but if it gets to warm then the humidity will go up and that's when you get respiratory problems. Especially if you use the deep litter method. That litter contains quite a bit of moisture.

I hope we all survive the winter,

Rancher

We'll all survive it, Just not sure if all our fingers and toes will.

I am very puzzled by people's concern about chickens and the cold. Wild birds live outdoors all winter and I have yet to find hundreds (or even one) of them dead on the ground in the spring. They have a down coat and thousands of years of inbreed survival instinct and they do survive. Our chickens have food and water delivered to them daily. Why wouldn't they live through the winter if protected from the illnesses of winter?

Want a good laugh? On the "Why aren't my chickens laying" thread someone in TX was asking since her chickens weren't laying any more, should she just sell them and start over in the spring, since she couldn't justify heating the coop for the winter with no eggs in return OMG.

In TEXAS

Don't misunderstand what I was saying. The plastic is strictly to block drafts, not to completely seal it. My barn has plenty of holes in it, a lot in places I could never block up, so there is no worry of it getting to humid. If anything, I sometimes get snow blowing inside the coops due to the holes inn the walls. I'm just putting the plastic aroundthe coop walls, and they open up to the whole barn so there is plenty of fresh air coming all over.

As to wild birds, yes they are out all winter, but they roost inside fir trees, bushes or in holes in trees out of drafts. They don't sit outside without any shelter. In the woods, once animals are deep inside, there is actually no wind that gets in usually.

Yes, I will be selling day old & started chicks in the late winter/spring.